Squad news

DEPORTIVO IN THE UK

27 Jul 2015Deportivo return to the United Kingdom after five years; the team will be playing two games in the next week in Huddersfield and in Wales. One of the games is against Swansea City, probably the most demanding match in the pre-season.

The fourth week in the pre-season of Deportivo will have an English flavor, because the first team will spent the major part of the time in the United Kingdom. It is an unusual planning as the team will pass through Portugal and will have a base in Manchester (48 minutes from Huddersfield).

The week starts with Deportivo traveling to Porto on Monday’s night after completing a training session at Abegondo, the players will only spend some hours in Portugal as in the morning they will travel to Manchester.

Hotel Mottram Hall in Manchester will be the first base of this stage; the team will spend two days there and will complete two training sessions in the football field of the hotel. From there they will travel on Wednesday to Huddersfield, the 11th largest town in the United Kingdom with a population of 162,949, in order to face the local team.

Huddersfield Town FC is a club from the Football League Championship (Second tier in England). Last season ‘The Terriers’ ended 16th, without major relegation concerns, but away from the promotion seats. Midfielder Jacob Butterfield was elected as their best player on the previous campaign.

After this game Depor will remain training in Manchester until traveling on Friday to Wales in order to face Swansea City. The base of the team will be at Hotel Swansea Hotel Marriot and will complete a training session at the sporting city of Swansea (Swansea Sports Centre).

And on Saturday Deportivo will end the British stage with the game at the Liberty Stadium. This should be understand as the more demanding test in the pre-season of Deportivo. Swansea City FC have bene playing in the Premier League since 2011 and had interesting results. Last season they ended in a respectful 8th place.

Swansea have made five signings during the summer, the main ones are Andre Ayew, Franck Tabanou and Portuguese Eder. Icelandic Gylfi Sigurðsson was their best player on last season and their reference in attack is French Bafétimbi Gomis.

To mention that this is the last pre-season game for ‘The Swans’ before debuting in the Premier League facing champions Chelsea FC. Coach Garry Monk expressed his satisfaction with the current situation of his team and described the game as important as it is the first at home on the pre-season, “I’m pleased with the application, attitude and effort from everyone, and the game-time the players have got will really benefit them. Next week we will look to up the quality once again when we host Deportivo La Coruña. We’ve been away in all the games we’ve played so far. They’ve been good tests for us. “But to be at home for the first time will be great for the players. Hopefully we’ll put on a performance and take that into the Chelsea game.”

This is the first time in five years with Deportivo playing a match in the United Kingdom. The last time Depor played a game in British soil was a friendly match in 2010 (August 07). It was a game against West Ham United FC as part of the SBOBET Cup 2010. The game ended goalless and was decided in the penalty shootout (Depor lost 3-5).